July 18 is Nelson Mandela Day. He spent 27 years in prison and said: “No one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.” Nelson Mandela remains a symbol of power by resisting oppression. In […]
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Each legislative session bills are filed to provide climate control for the living areas of the 65+ prisons that have none. Such bills received overwhelming support in the Texas House and then predictably died in the Senate. One consequence is that incarcerated individuals continue to die, and staff are negatively impacted as well. To date,
Overheated prisons impact staff as well Read More »
JULY 4 AND TEXAS PRISON CONDITIONS The Declaration of Independence is especially relevant to efforts to transform prisons into public agencies that promote life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. An incarcerated person has rightly or wrongly been deprived of their liberty. Responsibility for that person has been assigned to the state. When that state
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There is more than one way to mitigate heat inside Texas prisons. Here’s a message I sent to Reps Sherman and Canales, the two elected officials who have advocated most strongly for humane prison conditions. PRISON HEAT – A PROPOSAL “My home does not include a carport or garage. Not enough shade either. So when I
Incarcerated individuals are dying in over heated prisons Read More »